The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1993 clay mation film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a skeleton from Halloween Town who finds a door to "Christmas Town. Idea Behind the Film The genesis of The Nightmare Before Christmas started with a Poem by Tim Burton. He wrote it during his time as a Disney animator in the early-1980s. With the success of burton's short-film "Vincent" in 1982, Disney started to consider The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short-film or 30-minute television special. Over the years, Burton's thoughts regularly returned to the project, and in 1990, Burton and Disney made a development deal. Production started in July 1991 in San Francisco. Walt Disney Pictures decided to release the film under their Touchstone Pictures banner because they thought a the film would be "too dark and scary for kids". Plot Halloween Town is a Holiday World filled with citizens such as Jack Skellington, "The Pumpkin King". Jack is a respected entertainer amongst the citizens and grows tired of the repetitive yearly celebration of Halloween. He wanders in the woods, where he accidentally opens a door to Christmas Town. Impressed by the feeling and style of Christmas, Jack presents the culture to the citizens of Halloween Town of his slightly inaccurate impressions. While Jack may slightly understand Christmas, the townspeople fail to do so and compare everything Jack says to their ideas of Halloween. Nonetheless the townspeople agree to celebrate Christmas and take over the holiday. Jack's obsession with Christmas leads him to usurp the role of Santa Claus. Every resident is assigned a task, while Sally, a ragdoll resident, begins a romantic attraction towards Jack. However, she alone fears that his plans will become disastrous. Jack then assigns Lock, Shock, & Barrel a trio of mischievous children loyal to Oogie Boogie, to abduct Santa and bring him to Halloween Town. Against Jack's wishes and largely for their amusement, the trio deliver Santa Claus to Oogie Boogie, a gambling-addict who plots to play a game with Santa's life as the stake. Christmas eve arrives and Sally attempts to stop Jack, but he embarks into the sky on a coffin-like sled pulled by skeletal reindeer, hoping to deliver presents to children around the world. As Jack begins delivering gifts, children are horrified by their monstrous gifts, which include shrunken heads, man-eating wreaths, vampiric teddy bears, 30-foot snakes, and pull-string ducks dotted with bloody bullet holes. Their parents believe Jack to be an imposter attempting to imitate Santa, and the military is commissioned to shoot Jack out of the sky. He is presumed dead by the Halloween citizens, but eventually is shown to be alive. Although he is initially depressed by the destruction he had caused, he realizes he is still the ruler of Halloween Town and can bring joy to the world in his own way. Sally attempts to free Santa, only to be captured by Oogie Boogie. With the climax ensuing, Jack rescues Sally and Santa and defeats Oogie Boogie. Santa reprimands Jack before setting off to save Jack's Christmas mistakes. Santa flies over Halloween Town and gives it snow as a gift to the town, signifying that there be no hard feelings between him and Jack. The townspeople are confused at first, but start to play in the snow. The film ends with Jack and Sally sharing a kiss on a snowy spiral hill over the cemetery. Voice cast *Danny Elfman as Jack Skellington (singing), & Barrel *Chris Sarandon as Jack Skellington *Catherine O'Hara as Sally, & Shock *William Hickey as Doctor Finklestein *Glenn Shadix as Mayor *Ken Page as Oogie Boogie *Ed Ivory as Santa Claus *Paul Reubens as Lock Production Burton wrote a three-page Poem titled "The Nightmare Before Christmas" when he was a Disney animator in the early-1980s. Burton took inspiration from television specials of "Rudolph", "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" and the poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas". With the success of "Vincent" in 1982, Disney started to consider The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short film or 30-minute Holiday television special. Rick Heinrichs and Burton created concept art and stroyboards, with Heinrichs also sculpting character models. "Back then, I would have done anything to get the project off ground" Burton explained. "There was a lot of talk of either a short film, like "Vincent" or a TV special, but it went nowhere. I also wanted to have Vincent Price as narrator." Burton showed Henry Selick, who was also a Disney animator in the early-1980s, the material he and Heinrichs developed. Over the years, Burton's thoughts regularly returned to the project. In 1990, Burton found out that Disney still owned the film rights, and the two committed to produce a full-length film with Selick as director. Disney was looking forward to Nightmare "to show capabilities of technical and storytelling achievements that were present in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". Nightmare marked Burton's third film in a row to have a Christmas setting. Burton could not direct because of his commitment to Batman Returns and he did not want to be involved with "the painstakingly slow process of stop-motion". To adapt his Poem into a screenplay, Burton approached Micheal McDowell, his collaborator on Beetlejuice. McDowell and Burton experienced creative differences, which convinced Burton to make the film as a musical with lyrics and compositions by frequent collaborator Danny Elfman. Elfman and Burton created a rough storyline and two-thirds of the film's songs, while Selick and his team of animators began production in July 1991 in San Francisco with a crew of 200 workers. Joe Ranft worked as a storyboard artist. Elfman found writing Nightmare's 10 songs as "one of the easiest jobs I've ever had. I had a lot in common with Jack Skellington." Caroline Thompson still had yet to be hired to write the screenplay. With Thompson's screenplay, Selick stated, "there are very few lines of dialogue that are Caroline's. She became busy on other films and we were constantly rewriting, reconfiguring and developing the film visually." The work of Ray Harryhausen, Ladislas Starevich, Edward Gorey, Charles Addams, Jan Lenica, Francis Bacon and Wassily Kandinsky all influenced the filmmakers. Selick described the production design as akin to a pop-up-book. In addition, Selick stated, "When we reach Halloween Town, it's entirely German expressionism. When Jack enters Christmas Town, it's an outrageous Dr.Suess setpiece. Finally, when Jack is delivering presents in the "Real World", everything is plain, simple, and perfectly aligned." On the direction of the film, Selick reflected, "It's as though Burton laid the egg, and I sat on it and hatched it. He wasn't involved in a hands-on way, but his hand is in it. It was my job to make it look like "a Tim Burton film", which is not so different from my own films." When asked on Burton's involvement, Selick claimed, "I don't want to take away from Tim, but he was not in San Francisco when we made it. He came up five times over two years, and spent no more than eight or ten days in total." Walt Disney Studios contributed with some use of second-layering traditional Animation. Burton found production somewhat difficult because he was directing Who Framed Roger Rabbit and in pre-production of Ed wood. Category:Media